Rick Hill is the Valero Alamo Bowl’s Vice President of Marketing and Communications. In this role, Rick directs marketing, sponsorship sales and public relations of the events on the bowl’s annual calendar. You can follow local and college football news on the bowl’s Twitter page. Prior to the bowl, Rick spent six years working for the San Antonio Spurs, one season with San Antonio Missions Baseball and two fruitless months trying to sell season tickets for the San Antonio Riders Football.

My Spurs Draft Story

My dream of playing in the NBA was quashed in the 8th grade as I was the second to last player off the bench for my middle school team. Following a season of getting more splinters from sitting on the bench than minutes on the court, the reality hit hard during the post-season awards presentation when my coach struggled to find something positive to say about my game. While handing out our trophies, he settled on "Rick has a knack for knowing when to release on our cherry pick play. Now if we could only get him to make the wide open lay-ups."

I never played organized basketball again, but I did get to see firsthand some players reach their dream of getting drafted into the NBA while working for the Spurs. The most memorable selection during my tenure was Tim Duncan. He was the consensus #1 college basketball player in both 1996 and 1997. Since the Spurs chances of getting the top pick in the NBA Draft were less than 2 percent the year Tim came out, I did not tune into the lottery (with "tune" being the operative word as this was before high speed internet, Twitter or texting so you had to watch it live on TV).

Instead I ran some errands and walked into my apartment to see an amazing 19 messages on my answering machine. Worried it could be bad news, I pushed the play button with intrepidation only to hear a steady chorus of cheers and screaming from friends and co-workers. While their excitement rendered most of the message at least partly inaudible, the ones I could make out ranged from "We got the #1 pick" to "It's Timmy Time!" or "Start planning the championship parade." Since Tim seemed like the perfect compliment to David Robinson, a parade did not seem like a far-fetched dream.

And even though Tim was a no-brainer #1 selection in the 1997 NBA Draft, there were a two things that gave me pause. First, I heard several scouts question whether Tim's laid-back, "island mentality" he had from growing up in the Virgin Islands would give him the drive he needed to be a top NBA player. The most-interesting question mark came from Tim himself who asked his Wake Forest teammate and best friend "What if I suck?" right before the draft.

Of course, nothing was going to stop the Spurs from making the selection. To give Tim's arrival in San Antonio a big splash, the Spurs planned a pep rally in front of the Alamo. It was an unbelievable sight as thousands gathered in Alamo Plaza while Tim and Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich met the media in the building across from the Alamo. To get Tim and Pop onto the stage, Spurs staffers made a human pathway which they dramatically walked through before making a triumphant entry up to the stage. It worked perfectly except for one problem. The crowd had collapsed the pathway behind Tim and Pop leaving no exit for them.

I brought up what I thought was a good idea to Spurs Public Relations Director Tom James. There was a TV production truck backed up to the stage. We agreed Pop and Tim would finish the pep rally and then hop in the truck and I'd drive them around to back of the building. After pumping the crowd into a frenzy with the help of the Silver Dancers and The Coyote, the pair willingly jumped in. We all quickly realized the fans wanted more of Tim as they surrounded the truck on all four sides.

Not wanting to wait for more fans to come over or for the ones already gathered to start climbing on the truck, I started inching forward feeling like Captain Phil trying to free his iced in boat from St. Paul Harbor in the "Deadliest Catch." However, instead of trying to avoid have the ice crack the hull of his boat like Captain Phil, I was hoping not to ruin an amazing celebration by rolling over a young fan's leg. Tim's only comment to me as he looked out the windows was "This is damn dangerous." After the wheels turned 4-5 revolutions, the fans started stepping back and I was able to circle the block. Pop and Tim jumped out and entered the back side of the building while I put my head on the steering wheel and breathed a sign of relief.

While the Spurs didn't hold a pep rally in front of the Alamo to welcome this year's draft pick DeJaun Blair to town, there is reason to celebrate his selection. Spurs GM R.C. Buford said he already penciled DeJuan in for 20 minutes a game giving Tim some needed muscle up front. Plus, DeJuan led the nation in offensive rebounding and the last player with the Spurs that topped any NCAA statistical category was Avery Johnson who was #1 in assists and that turned out pretty well.

ESPN's Chad Ford was equally excited as he gave the Spurs the top mark in the draft which says a lot since the team was without a first round pick. Ford's best line, "Factor in the addition of Richard Jefferson on Tuesday, and the Spurs have had one heck of a week." Amen brother.

The San Antonio Express-News' headline on the day after the draft said "Spurs see Blair as steal." Success in the draft is a common theme for a Spurs basketball operations staff who had pulled a rabbit out of the hat with David and Tim (instead of the picks right behind them in Armen Gilliam and Keith Van Horn) and plucked Tony and Manu from obscurity. I'm not willing to drive the Spurs bandwagon anymore but I have both feet onboard after a great week.

4 Comments

Sounds to me you want to buy some more tix...or maybe even a sponsorship?? "Blair's Buddies Section" sponsored by the Rick Hill.

The good news is the last player the Spurs drafted with injury concerns was Corey Alexander late in the first round and he never missed a game becasue of injuries. The bad news is that he sucked. The draft is a crap shoot even in the first 10 picks let alone the second round. Spurs fans don't get too excited yet.